NORTH West players will pilot Greater Western’s opens state trial challenge later this month after continuing their reign over Western at Gilgandra yesterday.
The Tim Vaughan-coached North West side were 32-24 victors in yesterday’s trial, collecting their ninth win in 10 years and dominating at the selection table with Farrer’s Scott Blanch, Jake Hawkins, Dominic Horn and Josh Dutton, Glen Innes’ Joel Jackson and Nick Ehsman, Coonabarabran’s Justin Evans and Peel’s Jay Chatfield earning a call-up to the Greater Western side for the state trial carnival at Myuna Bay later this month.
Narrabri’s Sean Russ and Duval’s Blake Keeping were also named as reserves – North West filling 10 of the 17 spots.
It was, however, a day of mixed fortunes for the zone, with the U15s going down in their clash 34-10.
But they did score seven Greater Western selections with Troy Evans, AJ Mylechrane (Coonamble), Ryan Stevens (Warialda), Josh Skaines (Inverell), Jack Pawsey, Jack Broughton (Farrer), and Blake Pawley (Wee Waa) catching selectors’ eyes.
Troy Evans was one of North West’s two try scorers, but there were plenty to go round for the opens with Blanch, Hawkins, Chatfield, Ehsman, Daniel McLennan (Bundarra) and Brett Jarrett (Farrer) all crossing.
Gunnedah’s Kyle Gallen booted the extras for a win that took a come-from-behind effort.
“We came back from 24-16 down with three tries in the last 10-12minutes,” coach Tim Vaughan said.
“Although we did lead for most of the game.”
It was a game, Vaughan said, that they spent the majority of tackling.
“It was one of those games where we couldn’t get hold of the ball for a long time,” he said.
“When we did, we did a lot of good things, although our execution wasn’t that great.”
Still, Vaughan said the boys were very impressive.
“We didn’t have a bad player,” he said, giving his best and fairest medal to dummy half Dutton.
“He tackled very strongly and worked extremely hard.”
“Dominic Horne and Blake Keeping in the front row were also good, and Jay Chatfield when he got the ball in the second half created a bit of havoc.”
The 15s also struggled in the possession stakes, but unlike the opens weren’t able to withstand the weight of possession and after trailing just 10-6 at half-time finished 24-points in arrears of the Westerners.
“They skipped away on us in the second half,” coach Steve Porter said.
“They had a lot of possession.”
Evans was North West’s first half try scorer, with Inverell’s Aaron McNamara kicking the extras and then contributing a second half try.
Porter said despite the limited time in possession and the scoreboard blowing out, his side didn’t give up, and selected Boughton and Pawsey as the standout performers.
He will now coach a big and strong Greater Western side at the state trials on May 26-28, while Vaughan will be in charge of the opens.
“It’s looking pretty strong. It’s a pretty balanced side we’ll take away, there’s a lot of skills there,” he said.